


Seeking Approval

by Skeeter_110



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Female Peter Parker, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Tony Stark Coparenting Peter Parker, Other, Penny Parker - Freeform, Peter Parker is Penny Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:01:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25173559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skeeter_110/pseuds/Skeeter_110
Summary: Penny just really wants Tony to like her new boyfriend. The only problem is her boyfriend is an Osborn, and Tony is thickly obtuse.
Relationships: Harry Osborn/Peter Parker, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 4
Kudos: 138





	Seeking Approval

**Author's Note:**

> I've always loved the Penny Parker trope and wanted to put one of my own out there haha this had also not been seen by a beta so excuse the mistakes.

Penny was acting weird.

Well... okay, so maybe it wasn't weird for a teenage girl to be constantly on their phone, but considering that it was Penny and they were in the middle of lab day, it was a bit weird.

Penny was all but ignoring the new updates to her web-shooters in leu of texting whoever it was that was messaging her, letting out the occasional giggle. The next time it happened, it sounded more like a nervous squeal than anything and Tony couldn't help but look up, seeing Penny hiding a blush behind her hands. 

"What's got you acting all squirrelly over there, Kid?" Tony asks, no longer able to keep his curiosity to himself. Penny just snapped her head up, the blush on her face growing even darker when she saw the man waiting for an answer.

"Umm, n-nothing." Penny tries to deny, finally going back to her web-shooters.

"That sure doesn't seem like nothing, Pen." Tony continues, walking over to the girl's worktable. 

"W-Well, I-it's not _nothing_ per se." Penny says, looking up at her mentor with a sheepish look. "I-I kind of... have a boyfriend, now." Penny explains, looking down at the screwdriver she was twirling around in her hands with a shy smile.

"A boyfriend? When did this happen?" Tony asks, a bit shocked; although it did explain everything.

"It's fairly new; we've only been on two dates so far. W-We actually have another one planned for Thursday, if that's okay. I know it's a lab day and we planned on working on-" Penny began to nervously ramble, Tony cutting her off with a small chuckle and a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Pen, it's okay. You deserve to take a break and relax for once." Tony reassures. Penny just sighed in relief, glad that the man wasn't going to be upset that she was missing a lab day. "So, what's the lucky guy's name?" Tony asks, a hint of teasing lacing his voice and a smile forming on his lips. That smile soon fell short when he saw Penny tense up again.

"You can't get mad." Penny mumbles, looking back down at the screwdriver in her hands.

"Why would I be mad?" 

"Because it's Harry Osborn." Penny explains, still murmuring in hopes that Tony wouldn't hear her very well. As if that was going to stop him from finding out who her boyfriend really was.

"Harry Osborn? As in-"

"Norman Osborn's son, yeah." There was an awkward moment of silence, which instantly made Penny's brain kick into gear, causing the word vomit to come begin.

"It's just... we were friends in elementary school - and we were honestly really close, he was my first and only friend before I met Ned - but then his Father shipped him off to boarding school and we didn't really have a way to keep in touch-"

"Kid-"

"-until now when he found my Instagram and messaged me, then we started talking and making up for lost time and-"

"Kid-"

"-I don't know, one thing led to another and before I knew it he was asking me out on a date and-"

"Pen!" Tony shouts, Penny finally hearing his attempts to stop her rant and quickly cutting herself off. "You don't need to explain yourself to me. You have a smart head on your shoulders, I trust your decisions." Tony tells Penny, making her relax at his words.

"You know, I honestly think you two would get along. He's really smart and is trying to build his own A.I right now, I think you two would have fun bouncing ideas off of each other." Penny says, Tony shaking his head at that idea.

"No, Pen, I don't think that would be a good idea." Tony tries to deny, Penny not ready to drop it yet. 

"No, really, Mr. Stark. Aunt May has already met him and they got along really well, I think you will too." Penny keeps pushing.

"Pen, why are you pushing this?" Tony asks, officially done with the conversation and making his way back over to the worktable he was at previously.

"It's just... I feel like you don't like him too much just because of who his Father is, but I also feel like if you met him and actually got to know him, you would realize that he's nothing like Norman." Penny explains. 

"I still don't understand why you're so adamant about me liking him." Tony says, trying to end the conversation by emerging himself back into his work.

"Because I already got Aunt May's approval and... I don't know... I want your approval too." Penny admits, Tony looking back up at her with confusion.

Without even thinking about what he was saying Tony instantly blurted out, "Why? I'm not your Father." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he regretted it. Of course he wasn't the girl's Father, she didn't even have a Father.

An awkward silence filled the air, neither one of them really knowing the proper way to react at the moment. After a bit, Penny cleared her throat before packing her things up.

"Pen." Tony quietly says, feeling bad that he made the girl feel like she had to leave, but his brain wasn't cooperating enough to figure out what words need to be said to fix the situation. 

"I better get going, it's getting pretty late and I promised Aunt May that I would be home for dinner, so." Penny says, throwing on a quick, fake smile before slinging her bag over he shoulder. "I'll see you next week." 

Before Tony could even begin to stop the girl and apologize, she was already halfway out the door. Tony just sighed and plopped down in his chair, rubbing his face and cursing himself and his no-filtered brain. 

"Well, that was not good, was it?" Tony asks the air, already thinking of ways to make it up to Penny.

* * *

Tony couldn't wait until the following week to see Penny again. He couldn't stop thinking about the whole ordeal, playing it around in his head on repeat. The guilt was eating at him for the past two days, making him come to the conclusion that he needed to go over to the Parker's apartment to make everything right. 

That's how Tony found himself anxiously standing and waiting for someone to answer the door. Just as Tony was about to knock again, May opened up the door, her face blank once she saw it was Tony who was knocking.

"Hey, May." Tony sighs, the anxious feeling he had not going away when May's expression stayed the same. 

"Tony." May greets, Tony looking down and running his fingers through his hair to distract himself from the intensity that was May Parker.

"I really fucked up, huh?" Tony asks, feeling like a child that was getting scolded. May really had that 'disappointed mom' look packed down.

"Something like that." May says, moving out of the way so Tony was able to walk into the apartment.

"Listen, Tony, I can't control what you do. I can't make you be someone you don't want to be. But that little girl-" May begins, taking a deep breath and sitting on the sofa before continuing.

"That little girl has lost every Father-figure she had. First her actual Father, and then Ben, and a girl's bond with her Father is stronger than anything else. You may not see it this way, but you are her mentor, you're the one teaching her new things that I can't, which - in my opinion - is what a Father-figure does." May all but lectures, Tony sitting next to her on the sofa because he had a feeling she wasn't done yet.

"I'm not asking you to be her Father-figure, that's not where I'm going with this, but I'm just saying that's how she sees you. So if she asks you for something that's a bit too much - even for _the_ Tony Stark - next time, don't be such a dickhead about it and remind her that she doesn't have a Father." May finishes. 

"Is she here? I think we need to have a conversation." Tony asks, May nodding towards the hallway the bedrooms were down.

"She's in her room getting ready for her date. She should be presentable by now." May tells him. Tony just gave a grateful nod before getting up and making his way over to Penny's bedroom. 

Tony gently knocks on the girl's door, a fond smile forming when he heard what sounded like Penny stumbling to get to the door. 

"I'm ready." Penny says as she opens her bedroom door, her carefree smile slipping off of her face when she saw it was Tony and not May. "Mr. Stark. What are you doing here?" Penny asks.

"Well, it was weird not seeing my favorite Spider-Kid today and I just wanted to stop by." Tony says, Penny picking up what that was code for and moving out of the way so he could walk into her room.

"W-Well I'll be leaving soon, so we don't really have much time to talk." Penny tells him, the usual pep in her voice gone. 

"I just want to apologize to you, Pen-" Tony begins, only to get cut off almost as quick as he started.

"No, Mr. Stark, that's really not necessary."

"I think it is so humor me. I was insensitive to you and I apologize. I know all you wanted was my approval, and I was too dense to realize why." Tony continues, Penny's face turning a darker shade of red the more he talked.

"Mr. Stark, can we just please forget everything about this?" Penny tries to plead.

"No, because I need you to know that whatever you need me to be for you, I am. Whether it's a Father-figure, a mentor, a partner in crime, whatever, I'm here." Tony says, Penny having to blink tears away before plopping down on the bed next to him.

"I'm sorry if I'm asking for too much out of our mentor-mentee-ship." Penny all but whispers, looking down at a loose thread on her quilt.

"You're not, Pen. Like it or not I _do_ see you as my kid. I'm just allergic to feelings." Tony jokes, smiling a bit when that got a small chuckle out of the teen.

"I'm surprised you haven't broken out in hives yet." Penny jokes back.

"I took a Benadryl before coming over." Tony retorts, making Penny snort. "I do want to meet this Kid though." Tony adds.

"Oh, no, Mr. Stark, you really don't have to." Penny tries to dismiss, only for her attempts to be futile.

"Nope. You want my approval and I can't give it to you unless I meet him. I gotta make sure he's not trying to coerce my Kid into working at Oscorp." Tony says, adding a fake shiver at the end to get Penny smiling again.

"Harry could never. Even he knows that Oscorp is vastly superior to Stark Industries." Penny says, Tony chuckling as he pulled the girl into his side.

"I love you, Pen." Tony admits, surprised a bit at the sudden need to let the girl know that. Penny just gave a soft smile before laying her head on Tony's shoulder.

"I love you too, Mr. Stark." 

**Author's Note:**

> I... have no idea where this came from haha I just remembered that a similar thing happened to me and then this happened haha


End file.
